


I know this beat too well

by crookedspoon



Series: Dick Grayson Week 2020 [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Dick Grayson is Catlad | Stray, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Jason Todd, Rating May Change, Underage Kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23578663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedspoon/pseuds/crookedspoon
Summary: 5 Times Dick Stole a Kiss and 1 Time Jason Stole It Back.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Series: Dick Grayson Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698982
Comments: 27
Kudos: 143
Collections: Dick Grayson Week 2020





	I know this beat too well

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RUNNFROMTHEAK](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RUNNFROMTHEAK/gifts).



> Written for the prompt "Different Mentor(s)" at dickgraysonweek and the anon who suggested a JayDick AU in which Dick is Stray. Thanks so much for the lovely suggestion!
> 
> I'm super, super sorry I'm turning this into another WIP, but for some reason I can't write short vignettes anymore. And I don't want to rush the individual parts. This is 80% outlined at this point, I just gotta find the time and energy to write it lol. Rating will def go up.

Jason's heart is beating in his throat. His hands are sweaty and trembling in his barely contained excitement. Just one more bolt. He's almost there. 

"You know, you're pretty cute when you're doing crime."

Jason curses. Of course _he'd_ show up. It's like he's able to _smell_ every opportunity to get Jason in trouble and dashes over from wherever it is he's been hiding out just to latch onto it. Because that seems to be the nature of their encounters, going back all the way to their very first.

Jason must have been eight or nine. His mom had still been alive then. He remembers it vividly. She'd sent him down to the corner store to buy some menthols. That in itself had not been unusual. She had him fetch little things now and again, but this was the first time she'd allowed him to go outside while it was already dark out. Jason was excited; he felt all grown up. Especially when she entrusted him with a ten-dollar-bill and said he was allowed get a little something for himself from the change. As long as he didn't dally too long.

Jason felt rich. He felt like an adventurer, braving the night to bring home treasure for his mother and himself.

Of course it was all too good to be true, because _this guy_ popped up out of nowhere and snatched the money from him. Jason was in shock when he noticed it was gone. At first he thought he'd lost it on his way and retraced his steps, looking at every corner and crevice where the wind might have taken it. He _needed_ to find it. Not only were his hopes for a special treat gone without it - his mom would never trust him to do anything by himself again.

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably closer to a mere heart-stopping minute, he heard a sharp whistle and looked up. There, on a fire escape a few storeys up sat a shadow-cloaked figure, waving a dollar-bill at Jason. Or not entirely shadow-cloaked. The yellow light from the street lamp reflected off his goggles as he moved. 

Anger and futility stunned Jason: he knew he wouldn't be able to catch up with the thief and get the money back. And he knew that eventually, he'd have to return home and admit to his mom that he'd lost her money and didn't even get her any cigarettes.

All that trouble because of a little asshole with sticky fingers. He became Jason's nemesis then.

"Shut up and go away," he grouses. "I'm busy here."

"I can see that."

Despite his name, Stray - the only name he ever gave Jason - never strays from a goal once he sets his sights on it. And annoying Jason seems to be his highest goal in life or something. His insistence on going out of his way just to be a pain in Jason's neck can't be expained any other way.

"I can also see you land in some _hot_ water when the owner finds out."

And _Jason_ can already see Stray dangling upside from the stupid whip he usually carries slung around his hips before he so much as turns around. 

"He's not _gonna_ find out unless you keep shouting around like that," he snaps over his shoulder.

What he did _not_ expect to see is Stray stretching out his legs into a perfect split. His feet wiggle, as if in excitement, then his entire torso _bends_ and his legs draw together until his toes touch the ground. Jason's mouth is dry, while the rest of him is decidedly not. Even his hair is sweating. No one should be allowed to move like that.

"Cat got your tongue?" Stray asks as he struts towards Jason with a sinuous sway to his hips, like a model on a runway.

"Fuck you," Jason forces out, but it sounds unconvincing. He notices his back is flat against the side of the Batmobile, as if he's been trying to melt through its body to inch away from Stray.

"Such a dirty mouth." 

Jason hates the guy's perpetually amused tone. Hates even more how his knees feel like rubber when the guy is this close. Or how he all but flinches when the guy walks right into the space of Jason's pathetically weak, splayed-open knees, and _crouches down_ in front of him.

"Here, let me clean it."

The Batmobile's armor is hard and unforgiving against Jason even as he tries to scoot further back into it. It's as though everything were happening in slow-motion: Stray reaching out, touching Jason's chin, and tilting his head just so. Stray leaning in, pecking Jason's lips, and grinning at him through those colored goggles. Stray leaning in again, quicker this time, and Jason's eyes nearly bug out of his head the moment he feels something warm and _wet_ against his lips.

Where Jason had been sitting like a stone and more or less observed what was happening to him before, he's a flurry of expressive action now: he shoves Stray away, _leaps_ to his feet, and wipes his arm across his mouth.

"Ew!" Jason all but screeches and scrubs his sleeve across his lips some more. HIs heart is thudding even harder now. "What are you, gay or something?"

In the meantime, Stray has rolled backwards onto his hands and knees, laughing, and hopped up to the fire escape where he left his whip.

"Dunno," he says with a grin that turns upside down as he drapes first one shoulder over the railing, then the other, only to pivot back up to standing. "Are you?"

"What? No way!" Jason protests. "I like girls!"

"Then how come I've never seen you kissing a girl?"

"That's because you weren't around when I did!"

Strays grin stretches impossibly wider, as if he weren't done with his Cheshire Cat impression. "Was I your first kiss?"

"Of course not!"

The question brings flames to Jason's cheeks. His first kiss had indeed been with a boy, one who had a stupid grin just like Stray, but who was soft-spoken and kind and nothing like Stray at all. He'd been there for Jason when his mother died and no one else was around to look after him. The boy had shared his meals with him sometimes, even though he appeared to be an orphan himself, but most importantly, he'd been a companion in Jason's life when he'd needed one and Jason will never forget that.

"I've kissed loads of times before!"

He remembers all the times they've sat on the edges of rooftops in the dusk, munching silently on their sandwiches and kicking their feet into the empty air. Remembers how difficult it had been to take even a bite no matter how starved he was, because his stomach was clenching so hard when this boy was close. Jason always felt stupid around him, like he couldn't get his mouth or his brain to work, and yet the boy laughed at the jokes Jason took way too long to tell and kissed his cheeks when they parted for the night.

Jason wouldn't say it out loud, but he misses him.

"Oh Romeo, oh Romeo," Stray intones with a grand gesture, then snickers and balances on the handrail of his 'balcony,' dipping his head toward Jason. "If you're such a seasoned pro, do I get another demonstration?"

"I can demonstrate how I'll kick your ass, you filthy thief!"

"Is that any language a boy your age should be using?" a deep, rumbling voice behind him asks.

Jason spins on his heels with a quiet gasp, only to bump his nose against Batman's crossed arms. Where the heck did he come from? Jason hadn't heard anyone sneak up on him, and he's usually _very_ aware of his surroundings. Stupid son of a rat. It's all Stray's fault for distracting him.

"You're up in arms about a bit of _language?"_ Jason asks, incredulous. "You must be hearing so much worse from your enemies!"

"Would you rather I address the hubcaps that are no longer attached to my car?" Batman asks and flicks his thumb toward the neat pile that Jason made before he was so rudely interrupted by that fleabag.

"I can explain," he says hastily, although he really can't. But maybe... Jason suppresses a smile. He needs to look earnest now. "See, I was just on my way home, minding my own business, when I saw this thief over there--" He points behind him, but when he turns to look, Stray has already vanished. If only his damned snicker had vanished with him, because it's still resounding in Jason's head.

_Shit._

"He was just over there. Catwoman's little helper. I'm sure you know him."

Batman just nods, and there's no telling whether it means _yes, I know him,_ or _keep talking, I'm listening._

"Well, anyway." Jason puffs himself up, even though his body is screaming at him to run away and hide. But he's not going to show weakness in front of Batman. He gestures toward the hubcaps. "This is all his fault."

Technically, it's true. If not for him, Jason would have had plenty of time to make off with his loot and Batman would have been none the wiser.

"Hn," Batman's gravelly voice rumbles. "It's not what he or his mentor usually go after."

"Maybe this was personal." Jason shrugs. "An opportunity to thumb his nose at you for thwarting them all the time."

Batman doesn't move, but Jason feels intensely scrutinized.

Screw this, Jason should be putting distance between himself and Batman. He's sure he can outrun him. He's smaller and lighter on his feet than Batman, and no one knows these streets better than he does. He can find a hideyhole in his sleep. On the other hand, Jason can't hide away forever. Nor would he want to.

"How good are you with cars?" Batman finally asks.

"How good am I with what?" Jason can't believe his ears.

"I'll need to bolt these on again and I could use some help."

"And you're asking me?"

"No one else around."

Jason shrugs again, trying to make it look as casual as possible, even though it was the beginning of a nervous shudder. The longer he stays around Batman, the more apparent his guilt will become. But running will only confirm it. He can play this cool. He's got this.

"Sure, I'll help."

At least with Batman around, Jason can rest assured that little fleabag thief won't show his ugly mug again so soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Monsters" by All Time Low.


End file.
